An Update on the Kenelm W. Philip Lepidoptera Collection at UAM

Kathryn M Daly, MS student & curatorial assistant, University of Alaska Museum

Overview of Highlights from 2015 ● Alaska Lepidoptera Survey records imported! ● Butterflies of Alaska field guide published!● 3 butterfly researchers used collection● National Moth Week project● Barcode of Life: Lepidoptera ● Re-organization / Smithsonian news● My 2016 masters research using the KWP

collection!

Alaska Lepidoptera Survey Records

ALL records 1966-2005 now publicly accessible in ARCTOS!Thank you, Matt Bowser!!

Collected by volunteers of the ALS: 20,465 individual specimen records imported..

Georeferencing & Range Maps

All AK records now have coordinates, CAN & RUS remaining

1,450 Alaskan localities lacked coordinates, specimens sent in by ALS volunteers..

May – September 2015

Dot range maps for all AK butterfly species!

Butterflies of Alaska, 1st edition!

500 copies arrived at UAM, 2 Dec 2015...less than 100

remaining!

− Bestseller at Fireweed Books, Palmer AK

− Bioquip: 130 copies to mail across the globe

− UAM Gift Shop receiving calls statewide

2015: 3 researchers used KWP collection & ALS data

● May – August: Dr. Zdenek Fric, Fulbright scholar, Czech Republic

● June: Dr. Andy Warren, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History

● July: Dr. Greg Breed, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Genetic diversity of Beringian butterfly species

Dr. Zdenek F. Fric, Biology Center of Czech Academy of Sciences,Institute of Entomology

Czech Republic

Sampled KWP collection & UAM insect collectionIdentified specimens from KWP & UAM collections Identified +250 specimens collected in 2015: ALS volunteer

Richard Flanders!Translated drawers labeled in Russian

Collected specimens across eastern AlaskaDonated 593 butterfly specimens to UAM Insect Collection!!

New species ‘discovered’ in KWP collection!Dr. Andy Warren, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity● Examined Oeneis chryxus specimens from Tok, AK

○ Morphology■ closest to, but darker & bigger than O.chryxus

○ A clue from KWP..■ ‘bore from genitalia?’

● “A new species of Oeneis from Alaska, United States, with notes on the Oeneis chryxus complex (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae)”○ Accepted in Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera,

January 2016!“It is much easier to describe a new species of Oeneis than to identify any of

them!” -Dr. Zdenek Fric

Oeneis chryxus & Oeneis tanana

July 2015, Euphydryas anicia trip to Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory

Dr. Greg Breed, UAF

Dr. Paul Severin, Univ of Oregon

Used KWP collection to inform travel plans for

collecting E. anicia in the Yukon

- only 4 Alaska specimens in KWP collection!

- 57 specimens in KWP collection from YT

Collected +100 Ean individuals this summer, legs taken for DNA - specimens

donated to UAM insect collection!+75 misc. bfly from YT also donated!

July 24, 2015: National Moth Week Celebration at Creamer’s Field

Dr. Philip avidly supported NMW

− encouraged moth collection and knowledge

− collected for NMW

− wrote several guest posts!

● Senate Resolution 70

− My hope: Senator Murkowski as a co-sponsor in honor of Dr. Ken Philip’s work

− Group letter from AKES?

Barcode of Life: sampled Lepidoptera from KWP Collection

● 211 KWP specimens barcoded○ 146 species!

■ 794 documented Lep species in AK

○ almost all 84 species of Alaska butterflies have now been sampled for BoLD...

489 drawers arranged● 5 sections organized

− Curated envelopes

− Butterfly drawers● Taxonomic● Chronological● Unsorted / Mixed decade

− Russian collection

− Exotic spread● Earliest specimens from

Kenelm W. Philip, age 17, Papilio sp. Staten Island NY, 1949

− Moths● Taxonomic● Unsorted / Mixed decade

2016 plans

See you next year!

Acknowledgements: Dr. Derek S. Sikes, University of Alaska Museum, all those who participated in the Alaska Lepidoptera Survey, National Park

Service and the Smithsonian Institution for their continued support